Mortgage Performance Continues to Improve

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WASHINGTON—The overall performance of first-lien mortgages continues to improve, and the number of loans in delinquency continues to decline, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) most recent quarterly report on mortgages.

The OCC Mortgage Metrics Report, Fourth Quarter 2016, showed 94.7 percent of mortgages included in the report were current and performing at the end of the quarter, compared with 94.1 percent a year earlier.

The report also showed that servicers initiated 45,495 new foreclosures in the fourth quarter 2016, a decrease of 5.1 percent from previous quarter and a decrease of 28.2 percent from a year earlier.

As first-lien mortgage performance improves, the number of loss mitigation actions declines. Servicers implemented 32,312 mortgage modifications in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 9.3 percent decrease from the previous quarter. More than 89 percent of the modifications reduced borrowers' monthly payments.

The first-lien mortgages included in the OCC's quarterly report comprise 35 percent of all residential mortgages outstanding in the United States or approximately 19.8 million loans totaling $3.45 trillion in unpaid principal balances. This report provides information on their performance through December 31, 2016, and can be downloaded from the OCC's website, www.occ.gov.